Roger Waters - Is this the life we really want?

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ATD is still relevant, same globalist wars are still going on.

I absolutely agree. I should have clarified that I meant current events and his sound bites. AtD is rooted in the '90's to my ears.
Still, very relevant. People are still people. My own album deals with this theme as well (Prince of Peace, Disturbing the Universe, Illusions). I care about it very much.
 
I've been listening to this release for a while now. I can see how some listeners might anoint this as the best of the Waters solo albums. The disk is loaded with many things that will remind you of post WYWH Floyd music. So many in fact, that it almost sounds a little too recycled. The Waters list is there (ya know, a list like "Home" from KAOS, The ending part of "Dogs", "Eclipse" from DSOTM). The Waters echo is there (where the last syllable for the lyric is repeated over and over), on one track its overly used. Youll hear melodies that sound much like the material on "The Wall" and "The Final Cut". Even the opening track will sound familiar, like a re-do of "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard". There are ticking clocks and heartbeats and barking dogs throughout.

The sound is very Floydian... except...

The electric guitar work is very subdued. In the past Waters always had some guitar god step in and do his best, be it Clapton, Beck, whoever. Not so this time. Piano and acoustic guitar is at the forefront of this music, along with a lot of string arrangements. Very few of the tracks feature any substantial electric guitar work at all.

Its political as all get out, and in the true Waters tradition, there are lots of rants and observations made, but never is a solution offered.

The Audio is OK. Not great. I cant put my finger on it, but this one just sounds a bit more lifeless than the previous solo outings. I have the CD. Its been mentioned that the vinyl is better sounding.

At any rate, if you like the acoustic portions of "The Wall", "The Final Cut", "Animals", and most of Waters solo stuff, You'll like this too. Its all cut from the same cloth. If it had an excellent surround mix, I'd give it an 8.5, and surprisingly, it wouldn't loose much for the content.... it IS that Floyd-like.
 
I've been listening to this release for a while now. I can see how some listeners might anoint this as the best of the Waters solo albums. The disk is loaded with many things that will remind you of post WYWH Floyd music. So many in fact, that it almost sounds a little too recycled. The Waters list is there (ya know, a list like "Home" from KAOS, The ending part of "Dogs", "Eclipse" from DSOTM). The Waters echo is there (where the last syllable for the lyric is repeated over and over), on one track its overly used. Youll hear melodies that sound much like the material on "The Wall" and "The Final Cut". Even the opening track will sound familiar, like a re-do of "The Ballad of Bill Hubbard". There are ticking clocks and heartbeats and barking dogs throughout.

The sound is very Floydian... except...

The electric guitar work is very subdued. In the past Waters always had some guitar god step in and do his best, be it Clapton, Beck, whoever. Not so this time. Piano and acoustic guitar is at the forefront of this music, along with a lot of string arrangements. Very few of the tracks feature any substantial electric guitar work at all.

Its political as all get out, and in the true Waters tradition, there are lots of rants and observations made, but never is a solution offered.

The Audio is OK. Not great. I cant put my finger on it, but this one just sounds a bit more lifeless than the previous solo outings. I have the CD. Its been mentioned that the vinyl is better sounding.

At any rate, if you like the acoustic portions of "The Wall", "The Final Cut", "Animals", and most of Waters solo stuff, You'll like this too. Its all cut from the same cloth. If it had an excellent surround mix, I'd give it an 8.5, and surprisingly, it wouldn't loose much for the content.... it IS that Floyd-like.

The recording spreads out nicely using the specWeb upmixer. The recording isn't all that dynamic but it is clean and clear. I haven't stopped listening to it yet.
 
The recording spreads out nicely using the specWeb upmixer. The recording isn't all that dynamic but it is clean and clear. I haven't stopped listening to it yet.

Like I said... I cant put my finger on the sonics yet. The bass is nice and full. Great sound on the bass guitar drums and percussion. I like the drum work on this disk, and I notice it more that most other disks. The acoustic guitar work is clean and sounds as it should. But the strings sound artificial. Maybe they are for all I know. In the denser passages, it seems like there is some weird electronic hash that is affecting every instrument that's playing, even the vocals.

So how many Waters albums include recorded explosions?.... oh, like... all of them (maybe not Pros..)? You'd think they'd have this down by now. But this has to be the wimpiest release for explosions in the catalogue.

Oh and I do want to mention a common Waters-ism that I forgot previously.... it has lots of TV and radio sound bites. How could it not?
 
Like I said... I cant put my finger on the sonics yet. The bass is nice and full. Great sound on the bass guitar drums and percussion. I like the drum work on this disk, and I notice it more that most other disks. The acoustic guitar work is clean and sounds as it should. But the strings sound artificial. Maybe they are for all I know. In the denser passages, it seems like there is some weird electronic hash that is affecting every instrument that's playing, even the vocals.

So how many Waters albums include recorded explosions?.... oh, like... all of them (maybe not Pros..)? You'd think they'd have this down by now. But this has to be the wimpiest release for explosions in the catalogue.

Oh and I do want to mention a common Waters-ism that I forgot previously.... it has lots of TV and radio sound bites. How could it not?

Tiny drone explosion...
 
This is a tough one.

What I first noticed was how very old (I guess his age is telling) Roger's voice sounds. My wife even pointed out that he sometimes sounds like an old man on a park bench moaning about the past. Not that he ever was a great singer, but his voice sounds very tired here.

Secondly, and this has been pointed out many times, a lot of these songs sound like updates to old PF songs. Most notably stuff like "Dogs" and "Welcome To The Machine" seem to resurface here.
What is most ironic about this, is that the keyboard sounds remind me very much of the late great (and vastly underrated) Rick Wright... the same Rick Wright that Roger fired from PF during the recording of The Wall (only to hire him back a as studio musician and for The Wall tour) and was completely absent on The Final Cut (more about that one in a minute).
And yes, even the drumming has a lot Nick Mason-esque character, also something that has been pointed out earlier.

Thirdly: a song with the line "When World War II was over...". Oh dear. My first thoughts about that one: apparently Roger had lyrical content left over from The Final Cut, or so it seems. Even the music that goes with those lyrics sounds like it was lifted off The Final Cut.

So, does this mean I don't like this album? No it doesn't. Actually I quite like it. For all its flaws, it has character and sounds like an album that only Roger Waters could have made.

But it is a tough one. Oh, I already said that... Must be true.
 
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